Cupboard Weirdos

[DinoLil]

I took delivery of fancy tomatoes yesterday. Really nice ones and a lot of them. The website I got them from has some very interesting recipes that I'm going to try out.

Anyway, it's got me thinking. I've had to buy some odd ingredients to make said recipes and I'm now the proud owner of about 10kg of fancy tomatoes and a bottle of pomegranate molasses. Pomegranate molasses! I know what a pomegranate is, but a bottle of pomegrante molasses?

I can see that my £4.50 bottle will probably be used for one tablespoon and live in my cupboard until I rediscover it when it's 15yrs out of date.

What weird things have you got in your kitchen cupboards? Or your fridge? I know I've got a jar of marmalade that I made about 5yrs ago lurking with an elderly cucumber in my fridge.

But have just found myself looking on Amazon for pomegranate molasses 😂😂😂

https://amzn.eu/d/9fPeMRB

Only just found this thread but please tell me the Ozzie mushrooms aren't the ones that woman used to poison her family 😲

@NegroniMacaroni Cornish saffron cake!

@DinoLil @SheherazadesSpringNonsense pomegranate molasses is used in salad dressing in Turkey-it’s delicious! Olive oil, molasses, lemon juice and salt - drizzle over a med-style salad (red onion, leaves, tomatoes and cucumber) and enjoy.

Here you go... https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/pomegranate-molasses-recipes

Or look at Yotam Ottolenghi recipes, he uses pomegranate molasses a lot (but also a lot of other fridge fillers like black garlic so that may send you into a deeper hole!)

I love pomegranate everything!

I have found chatgpt brilliant in suggesting recipes for using up random ingredients.

I'll happily take the squid ink pasta off whoever didn't want it. Its the basis of one of our favourite meals. Basically soften shallots and garlic in a little olive oil and lots of butter until meltingly tender. Add a splash of dry sherry, finely chopped red chilli, double cream, black pepper and a tin of white crab meat. Cook squid ink spaghetti and add the sauce. Some crusty bread on the side is nice to mop up with. Yummy.

I do have a slight gadget addiction though. Pasta machine anyone? Still in the box it came in many years ago...

@Tinytigertail I'm going against your Christmas rule. I have Deliveroo arriving soon with pickled walnuts (yes!!) and some prosecco for you fancy peeps who say the pomegranate malarkey will go well in that.

I have ice cubes cooking in my ice cube machine (told you I love a gadget!) and the recipe I'm trying will involve a spiralized cucumber.

Oh and apparently sumac is like harrisa? I have a jar of that with a layer of dust on in the cupboard.

Just off to read all of the other posts since I abandoned you all to sit on the deckchairs. Oh and to do a mushroom/tomato swap with my neighbour. That took two hours! We do love to chat. I said to her I'd forgotten to brush my hair or put makeup on. Unlike me. She pointed out I'd also forgotten to put on a bra! The excitement of random cupboard/fridge/gadgets!!

@TheNightingalesStarling bhajis!

@NegroniMacaroni add it to rice pudding with some cardamom

@DinoLil if my neighbour pointed out I’d forgotten to put a bra on, I’d hit her round the head with one of them 🤣🤣 Anyway, she can’t come to our sumac molasses pickled walnut deckchair party.

@grumpygrape yes, that's what I was referring to! 😆

Loving all of these recipes all! None of us will have odd things in our cupboards at this rate, they'll all be used up in amazing things to try.

I'm really hungry now!

@SoScarletItWas she was lucky I didn't turn around too quickly because I'd have taken her eye out!!

Anyway, I'm running out of deckchairs! Bring a chair along, bring an ingredient (not bastardy tomatoes or pomegranate molasses), more fizz the better, I can do ice, spiralize a courgette or six. No bras required!

Lavender sugar. Literally just ordinary sugar with bits of lavender in it. I bought it at Norfolk Lavender in 2021, and I think I may have put some in a crumble. Once.

Dried lemongrass from an Asian supermarket several years ago because it was cheap for a big bag of it and I thought I could use it for something. Nope.

Knorr beef chilli stock cubes - from a shop in Kenya in 1991 (expiry date Nov 93). Still unopened. The instructions for use are wonderful: use one cube for a small meal and two cubes for a big meal. 😂

Small plastic box of saffron I brought home from a holiday in Majorca in about 1985. I may have used a strand or two.

@Fluckle 2034!!!! You've got a bargain! Mine apparently goes out in May 2027!! 😆

@Dabberlocks You win!!!!! You can sit on my deckchair, I'll go and pour some more fizzy pomegranate drinks.

Anyone want a garnish of bee pollen?!

Btw the pickled walnuts were out of stock so they've given me a small jar of pickled onions.

Sigh...

Chicken in white sauce

in vol a vonts
in a jacket potato
mixed with cooked pasta
in a home made pie

Don’t knock your pomegranate molasses on the floor! Speaking from terrible experience, a smashed full bottle of it is the most unbelievable nightmare to clear up.

@ilovepixie vol au vents! Yes! Bit of retro right there. Can you still buy ready made vol au vent cases? I remember buying those and stuffing them for my eldest first birthday. He's 26 now! You've got to bring that chicken in white wine sauce to the molasses walnut bee pollen lavender deckchair party. And I'm so happy it's in a tin, even better!!

@Ketryne oh dear. I shall take your unfortunate experience on board and wrap my bottle in a tin of chicken in white wine sauce, lavender sugar, a vol au vent case, bee pollen and a few pickled walnuts. That should keep it safe???

When I was doing low-carb I used sliced courgettes instead of potato in moussaka.

In that case, I'm not coming if mushrooms are involved 😯

Nothing weird, unused, or OOD in our cupboards due to having new kitchen in January 😇